PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 745 
If the Australians migrated from the north-west by way of 
New Guinea as I have suggested, it may be that they brought 
with them some elements of language common to the ancient 
oceanic stock-language, to crop out here and there in the Australian 
speech as words having a resemblance to Malay. 
At any rate, as it appears to me, there must be very grave 
doubts as to the Malayan element in the Australian aborigines 
as formulated by Mr. Matthew. 
Deducting, therefore, the hypothetical Malay ethnical element, 
which, if it exists at all, may be considered as merely local in 
Northern Australia, there is yet a limited Papuan or Melanesian 
element in Northern or North-eastern Australia, which cannot be 
altogether overlooked, and which in its negroid character cannot 
be altogether attributed to the original cross of the primitive 
Tasmanians. 
I was much struck when comparing some men from Pyince of 
Wales Island in Torres Strait, in near proximity to Cape York, 
with other men from the Cloncurry River, on the mainland, by the 
marked Papuan character of the former, and the marked Austra- 
lian character of the latter. The intermixture, through friendly 
intercourse, between the Kaurarega of Prince of Wales Island and 
the Gudang of Cape York is well known. 
The Prince of Wales Islanders told me that they voyage 
periodically in outrigger canoes according to the direction of the 
wind, southwards along the Queensland coast, or northwards across 
the Straits to New Guinea. 
This intercourse between Papuans and Australians by the inter- 
mediary islanders has probably existed for ages, and the admix- 
ture of race is indicated by the statement made by the latter to 
me that they obtained wives from Australia, and also from the 
islands to the north and from New Guinea. 
Deducting these various elements, the apparent strong cross of 
the qlee cer stock, and the certainly small admixture on the 
northern coast due to visits by the Bugis and the Papuan 
Islanders, there remains a large residuum to which the distinctive- 
ness of the Australian type may be attributed. 
To which of the great divisions of the human family may this 
Australian stock, on which the Tasmanian scion has been grafted, 
be assigned? Here is a difficult problem ; but this much may 
with safety be asserted, it is not Ethiopic or Mongolian, and 
leaving out of question the American stocks, which can scarcely 
be seriously considered, there remains, therefore, only the so-called 
Caucasian as that great division to which the primitive type of 
the Australian may be referred. 
In considering all the facts before me bearing upon the question 
of the origin of the Tasmanians and the Australians, [ have been 
